One Trick To Avoiding Childhood Asthma May Be Spelled Bow-Wow

By Dave Hnida

(CBS4) - Millions of children suffer from asthma, a disease that causes the airways in the lungs to clamp shut -- leaving the youngster gasping for a few breaths of oxygen. It's scary for parents and child alike.

Now a new study in JAMA Pediatrics suggests a nice non-medicinal preventive: a canine in the household.

Researchers followed more than 700,000 kids, some of whom had dogs, and some who did not.

The findings were pretty clear: those with a pooch, especially at during infancy, were more than 15 percent less likely to have asthma later in childhood -- even if there was a strong family history of the disease or even allergies.

Researchers weren't able to prove exactly why the risk was lower -- there was no obvious cause and effect -- but the drop was substantial; leading scientists to look at the so called "hygiene hypothesis," meaning the dust and dander and slobber of a pet may actually be a good thing.

In other words, rates of asthma and allergies, especially food allergies have jumped over the past few decades -- and one theory is that we are becoming too "clean" of a society, especially when it comes to kids. Too many indoor video games, and too little time playing outside in the dirt.

And dirt is not always such a bad thing -- it helps make the immune system stronger in the right ways, and not over-reactive to things that otherwise really shouldn't be harmful, such as peanuts, etc.

Now the study does NOT say bring a dog into the household if your child already has asthma. That may make things worse.

Plus, the study did not look at cats or other domestic animals.

It did, however, look at ponies and farm animals. And yes, they were protective.

And I'm sure you and your youngster would love to wake up to a pony under this tree this holiday season.

I think I will stick to the dog. Besides asthma, they also have been shown to lower the risk of heart disease, stroke and other chronic illnesses. Most importantly, there's nothing like having a good pooch around to listen to your problems.

Woof! Woof!

Dr. Dave Hnida is CBS4's Medical Editor. He blogs about the latest studies and trends in the health world. Read his latest blog entries, check out his bio or follow him on Twitter @drdavehnida